Tabbing Study Journals

I did this a few months back, but thought I would add it here for future use.

I actually got this idea from my sister, who teaches seminary in California. She had shown me how she had her class use their study journals last year by separating them out into Doctrinal Mastery topics. Since my class hardly used their study journals last year, I thought this was a FANTASTIC way to put them to better use this year. (Each student gets a new journal each year.)

My sister had tabbed her own study journal with those tiny post-it note tabs, but said she didn't do that for her class - they just had to find each section by flipping through their journal. As I thought about it, I decided it would be a great idea to put paper tabs on the journals prior to handing them out to the students at the beginning of the year.

I made a quick grid on my computer, then printed them on each color of cardstock. A couple other teachers wanted to tab the journals for their classes as well, so we had a mini journal-tabbing party in preparation for the year to start.

Once I printed the tabs on colored cardstock, I used an exacto knife to cut them out (you could use scissors, but the exacto was pretty quick and I could cut two sheets at a time). We then folded them in half, and used double-sided tape (we used this kind and this kind) on each end to stick them to the blank journal pages. You could definitely use a gluestick for that, too.

I made this handy guide to use while placing the tabs:

Now that we've been using them for a few months, I have really loved having the tabs. I counted out three sheets of blank journal pages per topic as I placed the tabs, with a couple extra pages at the end for extra journaling. Another teacher at the tabbing party only had one page per DM topic, which totally works, too. If I am still teaching Seminary next year, I will probably leave two pages per DM topic, with a few more extra pages for journaling.

I have been making glue-ins (quotes, mini worksheets, etc) for the journals as well, which saves space for the kids to journal also.

Here is a quick example of a recent glue-in we used under the DM topic of commandments.

I love this idea. It has worked amazingly well. We are using our DM Core Document and study journals much more efficiently and effectively this year. Thank you, dear sister!